|
|
GET A SAFE SCHOOLS TRAINING
Success Story
|
|
Making Schools Safe in St. Louis, Missouri
The Making Schools Safe Project in St. Louis is making a real difference for LGBT youth. The Project, which was started over a year ago by the ACLU of Eastern Missouri, is led by a 15-member steering committee that includes representatives of GLSEN Metro St. Louis, PFLAG, social workers and social work students, a school board member, teachers, a psychiatrist specializing in LGBT youth, a lawyer, and high school students who are active in gay-straight alliances in area schools.
Modeled after the ACLU's "Making Schools Safe" training, the Project conducts anti-harassment training programs, works with schools to implement inclusive discrimination policies, and reaches out to schools to engage them in safe schools efforts.
In the spring of 2003, the Project completed a survey of nearly 100 area school districts and obtained copies of each district's discrimination and harassment policies. They used this information to chart all of the districts, their policies, whether they include sexual orientation or gender status, and the specific language used in the policies.
Armed with this information, the Project then drafted letters to school superintendents and counselors, offering to help draft safe schools policies, produce workshops, and assist in implementing inclusive programs. These letters, along with a resource book that contains information on local agencies that address LGBT and other relevant topics, will be sent during the 2003 summer.
The Project will work with every school district to make sure that each district gets what it needs to make schools safer. The goal is for the Project to become a clearing board for directing schools to appropriate LGBT services.
The Project, with the strength of all its member organizations, has also become active in statewide efforts. During the last legislative session, the group helped defeat proposed legislation that would have barred school districts from implementing any discrimination policies that exceed state or federal law. (Missouri state law does not include protection for sexual orientation.) The Project worked to educate the public about the bill, doing phone banking and distributing fact sheets on the bill. The high school students on the steering committee got young people from area LGBT youth groups involved in direct lobbying against the bill, and the psychiatrist on the committee wrote an op-ed that was published in several papers around the state.
>> Next: Steps to Get There
|
|
